Transworld Haunt Show the early years (especially circa 1995)

03-20-2016, 06:51 PM

Hello I've been attending the Transworld Haunt Show at St. Louis since 2013 and I've been wondering what the haunt show used to look like in it's early days during the 90s and early 2000s especially during 1995 when it first started? Do any pictures or videos exist during this time period or can anyone here who was attending since the 90s/early 00s post anything here? Since this could be a very genuine historical value here since I'm sort of a history buff you know.

Yep, been attending since 1995. A lot has changed since then. Some good some bad. Hard to believe there was a time when vendors like Scare Factory and Gore Galore were very minor players. Here's video while it was still in Chicago. https://youtu.be/g1pNht9sNZ4

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Yikes I hate to jump in on this for fear of dating myself but for historic value, I'll bite the bullet! As I'm sure you know the Transworld Halloween show was originally held in the Rosemont convention center, which is now called the Donald A. Stephens convention center, in Rosemont Illinois. Though a lot of growth has taken place around the area of the convention center, in the last twenty some year, there wasn't much around that area at that time other then a mulit-level parking garage, a number of hotels and a Mortons steakhouse and of course all of that was on the opposite side of the convention center.

This meant that if you didn't take the skybridge that was located in the parking garage and directly connected to the convention center, you took your life in your own hands crossing River road, though the village of Rosemont regularly assigned police to assist with traffic and helped to get show visitors safely across that heavily traveled road. The first year that I attended the Transworld Halloween show was in 1992 and at that time, the Halloween show ran in conjunction with the Party and Gift show.

Once inside the convention center, you had the option of going to the left through a huge archway of balloons which would lead you into the party and gift show section, or you could go to the right and pass through an entrance which was basically made up of that stone wall on a roll paper stuff which had large orange letters across the top of the entry way that read "Entrance Halloween show"... For me it was obvious which side of the show I went towards! Once inside and on the actual trade show floor, the big booth that was usually right up front and center was Rubie's, while the paths of each aisle were covered in red carpeting and that red carpet was traveled by many more retail shop owners then it was haunters at that time!

There weren't the hoards of black clad wearing haunters back then in attendance as there are now at todays Transworld Halloween shows and if you didn't have a business card, your chances of getting a catalog were slim. It was something I would look forward to year after year and with each year that passed you could see the changes and advancements in the show, in the products and before you knew it, it became an industry, and all of that was a unique experience in itself. Yes, I have video (actual old fashioned vhs tapes) of the show, as well as photos. You specifically mentioned the year 1995, that was a year I remember well, since it was the year that Distortions Unlimited, unveiled their Electric chair prop!

The reason I remember that year and that particular information so well, is because the haunt I was running at that time bought a ton of stuff from that years show, to make sure we had that electric chair, we ended up buying the entire 1995 Distortions Unlimited booth, which was a first for me. To show you how things have grown and changed, that electric chair wasn't referred to as an animation or pneumatic but rather, it was simply called a display... I was there and can say with pride that I wouldn't have missed a moment of it for the world!

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You specifically mentioned the year 1995, that was a year I remember well, since it was the year that Distortions Unlimited, unveiled their Electric chair prop!
that electric chair wasn't referred to as an animation or pneumatic but rather, it was simply called a display... I was there and can say with pride that I wouldn't have missed a moment of it for the world!

I remember the first time I saw the Distortion's electric chair at Trimper's Haunted House - OC Maryland....Man that was intense for a dark ride....They still have it!....ZR